“A newly discovered wooden sculpture of a Buddha that had religious objects sealed in its torso for 800 years sold for $14.3 million, setting a world record for any Japanese work of art.” The winning bidder was a Japanese department store, and the sale price was more than seven times the highest pre-sale estimate.
Author: sbergman
Does Toronto Need More Museum Space?
Summer is traditionally a time when museums mount those inescapable blockbuster exhibits designed to draw in the maximum possible number of ticketbuyers. But in Toronto this summer, things will be relatively quiet. “One inconvenient truth about Toronto as a city with an appetite for big art shows is that apart from the AGO and the ROM, we have nowhere to put them.”
NY’s de Zegher Headed To Toronto
“The Art Gallery of Ontario, slouching toward its reopening next fall, has hired a new director of exhibitions and publications. Catherine de Zegher, former executive director of the Drawing Center in New York, has already taken up her new post.”
Welcome To Wright Country
There is a place in rural Pennsylvania where you can visit no fewer than three of Frank Lloyd Wright’s signature houses in a single day. “Fallingwater is spartan and spectacular; the hilltop Kentuck Knob is cozy within and expansive without; and Duncan House, the newest addition to the collection, is a transplanted curiosity where visitors can spend the night.”
The People’s Art House Director
“Anthony Minghella brought the art house to the multiplex without forcing anyone to squirm or read subtitles. In doing so, the filmmaker created a formula that has confounded so many moviemakers since Hollywood first erected that famous shingle in the hills.”
War Games
“It may be simultaneously illuminating and terrifying to realize that an entire postdraft generation of young men has had its perception of war shaped in some measure by video games. Games are perhaps the final mass-entertainment medium that regularly includes portrayals of modern war; gamers may be the last audience ready to consume them.”
Wilson Revival Coming To Broadway
August Wilson’s Fences, about “a bitter and resentful former baseball player and ex-convict in 1957 Pittsburgh,” will be revived on Broadway this fall, in a production directed by Suzan-Lori Parks. The original Broadway run of Fences, in 1987, made it Wilson’s most financially successful play.
That Fleeting Hollywood Magic
When Hollywood shows up in your town to film a movie, it’s hard not to get excited about it. Moreover, once the film crews and megastars have left, it’s hard not to miss the excitement. “Hollywood loves the heartland, but only to a point.”
Whitney To Get $131m From Its Own Chairman
“Leonard A. Lauder, the cosmetics executive and chairman of the Whitney Museum of American Art, said on Tuesday that his art foundation would give the museum $131 million, the biggest donation in the Whitney’s 77-year history.”
de Waart Headed Back To Minnesota
The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra has named conductor Edo de Waart is its latest “artistic partner,” under the revolving system of leaders the SPCO uses in place of a single music director. De Waart, who will also become music director of the Milwaukee Symphony in 2009, was music director of the nearby Minnesota Orchestra from 1986-95.